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Historical Sketches of Brisbane p3

The vanished Thorroldtown Station…

The author of Historical Sketches of Brisbane continued: It was inevitable, from the economic standpoint that the Thorroldtown Railway Station would have to be closed and by 1890 this was done, the Lutwyche Station removed 300 yards northwards from Chalk street to its present position and renamed Wooloowin.

The author wrote that there was controversy over the naming of Wooloowin Station, with the contention that it should have been named Kuluwin, which was closer to the Aboriginal word, for a species of pigeon. To this day, the station and surrounding suburb is called Wooloowin. Not many people would be aware of the name Thorroldtown.

The author writes: As happened in many similarly small and early day suburbs of Brisbane, the elimination of the Thorroldtown Station, the cessation of the Thorroldtown horse drawn omnibus service which ran from Tom Withecombe’s Butcher Shop at Thorrold Street to North Quay via the alternate routes of Chalk Street and McLennan Street, and the absence of any visual reminders, all tended to cause the name of Thorroldtown to drift into the limbo of forgotten things. The name of the area is now absorbed into that of Wooloowin otherwise Kuluwin.

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